BOZEMAN — It’s Bobcat playoff season, and that means excitement not just for fans, but also for retailers.
From sweatshirts to squishmallows, the MSU bookstore is seeing sales increases as the Bobcats progress to the FCS quarterfinals.
“We try to keep up with all the merchandise,” said Dana Johnson.
Bozeman residents Dana and Steve Johnson are MSU alumni. They are also lifelong Bobcat fans – and so are their four children and 14 grandchildren, who all live in Bozeman.
The Bobcats are rolling and so are MSU bookstore sales
The two are going to Friday night’s playoff game against Stephen F. Austin, but before then, they stopped into the MSU Bookstore at the mall.
“We’re doing our Christmas shopping. Which is kind of embarrassing if this is on TV, our kids are going to know what we got them now,” said Steve Johnson, as he laughed.
As avid Bobcat fans, Steve and Dana say, “We’re already looking into going to Nashville, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.”
They also tell MTN they try to keep up with the new merchandise, like the new Big Sky Conference champion gear, which is why they say the new MSU Bookstore at the mall has been:
“A great opportunity for the community to come out here and not have to worry about the parking down at MSU,” said Steve.
MSU Bookstore CEO Chad Schreier shares the same sentiment.
“We’ve seen about a 20% bump overall in mall traffic versus the store traffic,” said Schreier.
We asked Schreier if the MSU Bookstores, both at the mall and on campus, have seen increases since the playoffs started.
“It’s been a really busy fall for us in general. When the Cats roll, the fans are here, and they support,” said Schreier. “As playoffs have started, it’s just continued to grow for us. It’s been a very busy week.”
In fact, Schreier says the MSU Bookstore has seen a 10% increase in sales year-to-date from last year.
“People are excited, I think it’s becoming expected that the Cats are going to play in December,” said Schreier.
Schreier says the most popular merchandise items this season have been the Champ plushes, Big Sky Conference gear, and Brawl of the Wild items.
“Obviously, winning the Brawl two years in a row, especially this year beating Griz in Missoula, there’s been a lot of excitement around that type of merchandise,” said Schreier.
Schreier says fans should keep an eye out for special Brawl 2.0 merch if both teams win.
“We expect if everything goes the way we hope it goes this weekend, that next week will be very, very busy,” said Schreier. “But we got to get through this week first.”
